


Adventures in Picking Pumpkins

by eldrtichtrans



Series: Boy in Orange [1]
Category: HLVRAI - Fandom, Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: (but very minor), (oh my god they were roommates), Autistic Benrey, Body Horror, Eldritch Benrey, First Kiss, Fluff, He/Him and They/Them Pronouns for Benrey (Half-Life), M/M, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Post-Canon, Roommates, Stimming, Though It's Not Mentioned, Trans Gordon Freeman, a lot of this is me projecting, fall themed fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:40:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26335051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eldrtichtrans/pseuds/eldrtichtrans
Summary: "If we, uhhhh, did something, nobody would know.""What... are you saying?" Gordon was confused, but had an inkling of where this might be going - but it couldn't be, no, this was just another weird Benrey threat.He gave an uncharacteristically tentative wink. "Wanna kiss?"-Gordon invites Benrey to a pumpkin patch, and they find themselves lost in a corn maze.
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Series: Boy in Orange [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1960996
Comments: 31
Kudos: 392





	Adventures in Picking Pumpkins

**Author's Note:**

> I came out of 2 years of fic retirement to write this because I kept thinking about pumpkins
> 
> Also Gordon loves fall so much because it has halloween in it, and he loves halloween because he's trans. if you're trans ykwim
> 
> Update: Sequel out now!

Gordon couldn't quite remember how he convinced Benrey to come to a pumpkin patch with him. He did remember his attempts to explain the purpose of one and why they're fun to go to, which mostly made his roommate more confused. Autumn was Gordon's favorite season, all of its aesthetics included. And he _always_ decorated his apartment for it. Somehow Benrey must've found his enthusiasm about the matter endearing (or funny) enough to agree to come with.

Though they'd been roommates for the past 6 months, they'd never really gone someplace together before. Besides the necessary trips to the store or to hang out with the Science Team, of course. Never to someplace where it was just the two of them doing something completely for fun. To be fair, they'd not been on a friendly basis for that long, all things considered.

After Black Mesa and Tommy's birthday party, Gordon had come back to his apartment to find the alien he'd thought he'd killed just chilling on his couch. Though his initial reaction was fear and anger and confusion, he was too tired to deal with it and decided to just let him stay the night. 

Six months later, Benrey had taken over the guest room, paid half the rent each month and, generally speaking, wasn't the worst roommate in the world. At some point, Gordon had found himself forgiving Benrey; though he didn't agree or justify Benrey's actions, some part of him just didn't have the energy to keep hating him anymore. He had to heal, especially if they were going to keep sharing the same 750 square feet. That and Benrey had somehow started to grow on him, which was a feeling that would continue to develop until they were hanging out regularly. Against all odds, he was enjoying Benrey's company - maybe too much.

As far as going to a pumpkin patch together, Gordon insisted to himself that it wasn't a date. He just didn't want to go alone or leave Benrey behind. Or bring the Science Team. Just a nice platonic outing between roommates.

Gordon kept thinking about all of that during the drive over to a local farm with a pumpkin patch and various other fall-themed attractions. Obviously it was hard to find a decent one in New Mexico, but Gordon had been to this particular pumpkin patch a few years ago. Maybe more than a few years ago. Working at Black Mesa hadn't left him with much freetime, but since he was now living on government hush money he was going all out for the fall.

He glanced over at Benrey, noticing how they seemed almost… nervous. They had been abnormally quiet the entire ride, and were chewing on the strings of their hoodie - something Gordon admittedly found cute. He wondered what was going on in his passenger's mind as they began to approach the farm. 

\---

"People really like this place, huh?" Benrey said, shuffling in place idly. The line to pay was moving at a decent pace, but the grounds ahead looked full of people. "Thought you were just, uh, crazy 'bout gourds. Gourd-on."

Gordon rolled his eyes. "Technically they're fruits, because they have se-"

"Blah blah blah naamnaamaa." Benrey cut him off with his typical mocking gibberish, and Gordon sighed in defeat. Luckily they'd made it to the booth to pay, so he focused his attention on pulling out his wallet and paying the woman behind the register.

After paying and making it through the entrance, it became clear to Gordon that Benrey was actually fascinated with the place. Or maybe overwhelmed. Either way, he wouldn't stop wandering off before Gordon had a chance to take in the surroundings. There were jumping castles for the little kids running around, several petting zoos, pony rides, and in the back, the star attraction: the pumpkin patch. An area that, once they reached it, finally made Benrey stop running off.

The pair gawked at the sea of pumpkins before them. All different sizes, colors and types. Even Gordon was impressed. Benrey’s eyes looked vaguely mesmerized behind his normally impassive expression. It was probably bizarre to a being not from earth to see their strange ritual of picking a random fruit from the wild to cherish for a few weeks until inevitably throwing it out. It made Gordon wonder what types of traditions they had where Benrey was from - wait, _was_ there a place Benrey was from? Or did he just appear one day and decide Xen would be his home? The thoughts made his head spin, so he pushed them aside and cleared his throat. 

“So, um, I was thinking we could pick out one or two? So we could carve them. Or make something from them, I know a great pumpkin pie recipe-” He glanced to the side where he thought Benrey was, but didn’t see the man standing there. Confused, he started glancing around to see where he'd gone off to.

“Yo, bro. Look at this.”

Gordon shifted to the direction of his roommate's voice, and what he saw made his face drain of color. Benrey was holding a medium sized pumpkin in one hand. Their mouth opened to an unnatural size, and there was an audible snapping sound as their jawbone became unhinged that made Gordon cringe. He swore he saw Benrey's teeth elongate as well, and to his horror, they took a massive bite out of the poor pumpkin and swallowed it without chewing. Their face laced itself together and had the same sickening pop when his jaw relocated. Benrey grinned, looking pleased with themself, and placed what was left of the pumpkin - less than half of the original size - back onto the ground.

"I- what the FUCK. Why did you do that? Did anyone-" Gordon frantically looked around, not seeing anyone staring or paying attention to them, which made him slightly relieved.

Benrey's face became deadpan again, but his tone of satisfaction was evident. "Yo calm down. I was hungry. Looked, uhhh, crunchy. Kinda bitter though. Y’all make pies outta that?”

Gordon sighed, though his heart still raced. Jesus christ. "Well, yeah, you're not supposed to eat it raw- fuck, come on, let's get away from that before people notice." Benrey shrugged, and followed his roommate as he shakily led them towards the opposite end of the patch, close to the bordering cornfield.

Look, if Gordon was being honest with himself, sometimes when Benrey did weird eldritch shit like that it got his heart pumping in a way that wasn't just from fear. He'd never done something so graphic in _public_ before though, and Gordon honestly couldn't tell if he was so heated from panic or, well. The things he shouldn't be feeling about a person that's both his roommate and also a seemingly immortal alien that had tried to _kill him_ a mere 6 months ago.

Gordon was pulled from his yearning and horniness when he noticed Benrey had started to wander into an opening in the corn. Standing adjacent to the opening was an old wooden sign with the words 'CORN MAZE' painted onto it. Dread pooled in his stomach as the thought of the other getting lost in there flashed in his brain. "Benrey, we are not-"

"Yooo you didn't tell me there was a bonus mission here." He stared at the winding turns ahead of him in the maze, absentmindedly chewing on his hoodie strings.

Gordon mentally facepalmed at that comment. "It's not a- oh, come on, let's go."

"Huh? Nah. Feetman doesn't wanna go on a, uh, adventure?" Benrey was really testing him now, and definitely wasn't going to take no for an answer. "Get lost in the cobs with your best pal Benny? Lost in the sauce? L-"

"Fine, fine." He cut the other man off, not wanting to hear his comments anymore. Why'd he want to go into the maze so goddamn bad? "We can go through the corn maze, if it makes you shut up."

Benrey gave a satisfied grin. "Pog. Keep up, feetman." They said, and dashed into the maze, Gordon cursing himself for going along with the idea.

-

Benrey seemed to have the notion that corn mazes were for tormenting another person, rather than leisurely exploration. Even when Gordon caught up to him and they would calmly walk through the maze, every so often Benrey would suddenly dart out and clip through the stalks of corn. Gordon would run after him while Benrey laughed like a maniac, not unlike the way he laughed after jumping down that elevator shaft at Black Mesa, all those months ago. It was genuine, full of emotion, and while Gordon was pissed at his roommate for toying with him, it stirred the butterflies in his gut.

Eventually, they were walking side by side again, and Benrey had become very quiet, a striking change from the energy he'd shown prior. It felt... strange. Not exactly awkward, actually kind of pleasant - Gordon couldn't remember the last time they'd been together and it was so quiet and peaceful, at least to him. Benrey, however, seemed nervous.

"You know we're, uh, alone back here. That's kinda cool." While his comment sounded like a botched line from a serial killer, Benrey seemed really fidgety.

Gordon raised an eyebrow. "Uh, yeah man, I guess we are."

"If we, uhhhh, did something, nobody would know."

"What... are you saying?" Gordon was confused, but had an inkling of where this might be going - but it couldn't be, no, this was just another weird Benrey threat.

He gave an uncharacteristically tentative wink. "Wanna kiss?"

Back at Black Mesa, Benrey had asked him this all the time. Sometimes he still acted casually flirty, but it was always when they were hanging out with the Science Team, and he always laughed afterwards. Gordon should've just responded to this the same way he did all the others, and he almost did. But there was something different about this time. He was acting genuine. Vulnerable. Something about this time was special, and it made Gordon pause.

His heart pounded and the butterflies in his stomach were a flurry. His voice felt caught in his throat when he tried to speak. "I- uh, I-"

Benrey looked deflated at Gordon's apparent discomfort, their face becoming emotionless again. A sort of sadness and embarrassment betrayed this facade, and it didn't go unnoticed to the other man. "I'm, uh, just joking. Just joshing with ya. Should'nt'a made it, uh, awkward-"

"Do you?" The other man suddenly interrupted. "Like, do you want to kiss me. Really."

Honest to god, Benrey did something Gordon had never seen before - his face became slightly blue and he looked away, like he was blushing. "Wuh? Huh?"

"Look, if you don't want to, or you're just messing with me, then drop the act. But if you actually want to..." Gordon's words fell away from him as he saw Benrey nod slightly, still avoiding eye contact. He felt himself also blush and cleared his throat, trying to regain confidence because _holyshitthiswasactuallyhappening._ "I think... I think I'd like that actually."

Benrey's face lit up again. "I, fuck- uh, sick. Cause uhh me too. Would be pretty, uh, poggers." Gordon grimaced at his choice of words, but didnt say anything, too caught up in the rush of the situation.

He'd played through this exact scene in his mind a shameful amount of times. Wondered how it would work. Benrey was much more than a few inches taller and wider than him, which was something neither of them noticed until after Black Mesa. The HEV suit was bulky in many ways, including the boots, inadvertently giving the wearer of it the appearance of being larger than they actually are. In Gordon's fantasies, he'd always wondered how that size difference would be handled - among other things, of course. So when Benrey leaned over slightly and gently grabbed Gordon's chin to tilt it up towards him, he swore he must've been dreaming. And when their lips met, the feeling of it was only comparable to what Gordon assumed heaven was like. Something he'd not felt in years, maybe ever. Benrey's lips were slightly chapped, but had a dusting of something divine, like a color of sweet voice he'd never seen or tasted. The kiss was strangely warm and gentle, almost like Benrey was afraid of hurting him. It was a complete contrast from really anything Gordon had ever witnessed Benrey do or be.

The kiss only lasted a few seconds, but every moment of it felt so intense and real that it didn't even seem short. Gordon's suspicion about the sweet voice was proved correct after they pulled apart and Benrey coughed up some pink and red. Gordon would've expected him to look smug or at least confident, but behind his blushed-blue face Benrey looked like a grade school boy who got to hold a girl's hand for the first time. Like he should've had cartoon hearts coming out of his eyes. Gordon found the man's trance amusing and... endearingly raw, in a way he'd never been before.

"I, um. That was. Nice." He eventually got out, trying to regain his typical composure.

Gordon nodded, just as pleasantly flustered. "Yeah, I... really enjoyed that, actually."

"Wanna do it again?" Benrey blurted out. "Gotta perfect my run. Could've done better. Gotta get a, uh, higher score." 

Gordon rolled his eyes and leaned in for another, but was stopped as both of their heads whipped around at the sound of a child laughing and footsteps on hay drawing near to them. "We should go. Don't wanna get yelled at by some parents or something."

"Huh? Gordon gayman don't wanna be gay in public? Gordon, uh, cowardman. Pretty cringe."

Gordon grabbed the other's hand, dragging him towards the presumed exit and groaned. "I've changed my mind, we aren't ever kissing again."

Benrey, who had apparently suddenly gained confidence, scooped Gordon up like he weighed nothing. "You sure about that?" They whispered and kissed him on the cheek. 

Gordon was now positive he was dreaming, he HAD to be.

\---

The rest of the maze navigation was done with Gordon in Benrey's arms. This had been insisted on by Benrey, who held on to the other man like he'd not touched another person in years and now that he could, he wouldn't ever let go. That, and it seemed holding onto Gordon allowed them to both no-clip, so leaving the maze was significantly easier. Once they'd finally exited, Gordon took note of the setting sun and suggested they head home. 

On the way back to the parking lot, they passed by some large trees covered in Halloween decorations that Gordon hadn't noticed on the way in. He didn't think anything else of it until Benrey took interest in one of the trees.

Benrey approached a tacky plastic skeleton hanging from a branch. "Sup, man. You still got ps+?"

Gordon put a hand to his forehead, sighing. "Benrey, it's not real, it's just decoration. It's not your, um," he racked his brain, trying to remember Benrey's monologue on Xen. "Your playstation 'friends' or whatever."

Benrey turned to look at him. "Eye dee kay, man. He seems pretty real to me." And, to Gordon's astonishment, the tacky plastic skeleton _waved_. 

"I- what-" Gordon sputtered, trying to comprehend the sight in front of him. Meanwhile Benrey exchanged a few more words with the skeleton before turning and heading back to Gordon.

"We're gonna play together later. He's chill." He started walking to the parking lot while Gordon stared in awe at the skeleton (that was now looking significantly less tacky) untie itself from the tree. "Bro are you coming?" Benrey called.

Gordon kept staring at the skeleton as he cautiously caught up to Benrey, who was standing outside the car. He watched as it waved to him once more and ran off before turning to his roommate. "What did you- like that was PLASTIC..." He tried to articulate his confusion.

Benrey rolled their eyes. "Bro chill. I just freed him. Gave him uhhh," they smacked their lips. "Fucking, uh, treat, no tricks." They smiled, sharp teeth glistening in the waning sunlight.

"That's not how that- alright, whatever." Gordon gave up trying to explain, climbing into the car and putting the key in the ignition. He turned it and the car grumbled to life, but didn't put his hands on the wheel or make a motion like they were going to leave. Something seemed to stop him. What had happened to them earlier hung in the air wordlessly - maybe it was just a kiss, but with them it obviously wasn't that simple. It couldn't be just a kiss when you'd been through a traumatic incident together, defied death and become roommates and functionally 'friends'. Neither knew how to begin to address it, but for once, Benrey took the initiative.

“So, are we, like, dating?”

“Do you wanna be?” Gordon’s heart pounded. To be honest, he hadn’t dated in years. He wasn’t sure what it was supposed to look like, though he doubted that allies to enemies to roommates to friends to boyfriends was the normal route to go. 

“Yeah, actually, I'd like that. A- uh, a lot. Wanted to be for a while. I don't show em but I've-" he swallowed and sighed. "I've got feelings. Like, good ones. About you."

An indescribable happiness bloomed in Gordon's chest, and he smiled bashfully. "I… really like you too, Benrey. And I'd love to date you." 

They sat in pleasant stillness, both slightly avoiding eye contact, soaking in the moment but unsure how to proceed. Unexpectedly, Benrey reached his hand over to Gordon's, which had been resting on the gearshift. He merely ghosted his hand over the other's, tentative. Gordon finally looked at him, smiling, and interlocked their fingers. Benrey was blushing again. He had previously been tense, but relaxed and slouched into the chair before finally breaking the silence.

“So we, uh. Boyfriends. S’cool.” 

Of all things to happen, an eye appeared on their neck, and then another on their forearm. Gordon gave a confused and concerned look, and it took Benrey a moment to notice the new body parts. Like it had happened unconsciously. "W- Oh. Uh, sorry. Didn’t mean to, uh, do that. Hard to keep this form, sometimes. Takes concentration.”

“Actually, I-” Gordon shifted his gaze, debating whether or not to finish his sentence. They'd been incredibly honest already, so what could it hurt? “Actually I think it’s. Kinda hot. Your eldritch powers or whatever.”

“Yeah? Can’t believe my boyfriend is a, uh, monsterfucker. Damn. That’s, like, uh, I won the lottery. Got the powernuts. Big dollars.” He rambled on, more eyes starting to appear all over his body. “Best achievement unlocked. Perfect run.”

They were stupid, childish jokes. But Gordon started laughing anyways. Laughed so hard tears came out and he rested his head on Benrey's shoulder for support (taking care not to squish any of his extra eyes). Normally he wouldn’t find it funny, but in that moment it felt like a weight had been lifted from him. The world seemed brighten and enhanced, like the first time he put on glasses, and everything cleared up.

He sat up again and there was a short pause in their laughter. Just a breath or two, before they both leaned in for another kiss. No words, no questions, it just felt natural. The type of kiss they could melt into. That you want to last forever. The type of kiss that made Gordon realize that even if everything he'd ever done in his life un until now was wrong, this was right. This is where he was meant to be.

\---

As they were searching for a parking spot after an otherwise pleasant drive back to their apartment, Gordon abruptly brought the car to a halt in the middle of the lot, tires screeching. Benrey looked over to him with concern and panic, worried they'd done something wrong. "Wuh? You okay, man?"

Gordon, who had his face in his hands, sighed and looked to his new boyfriend.

“We forgot to get pumpkins.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, leave a comment! I really appreciate them, esp since I haven't wrote in a while. :)


End file.
